All Quiet on the Western Front (Daniel Brühl, German-language, Oct 28 in Theaters and on Netflix)

[52-80 19159]

On 11/6/2022 at 10:03 PM, tbone_ said:

How does this compare to 1917?

No comparison. This is a good non-theater movie. 1917 is a cinematic special. 

[RPM 26321]

27 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

This is a good non-theater movie.

It was released in theaters in August.

[nycHorn 3009]

Hollywood, Germany?

…..Utah.

[52-80 19159]

1 hour ago, RPM said:

It was released in theaters in August.

Theres a movie review website i liked called crankycritic where he assigns a $value to the movie, representing how much he would pay to see it. 

IMO 1917 is a full imax blockbuster. $12 nowadays?  which puts aqotwf at $4. 

[kevwun 15789]

I think All Quiet is the better movie.  It might have had a much smaller production budget, but the story is much better.

[Augustus 3061]

Watched last night.  Beautiful, in its way, which was to be horrifying.

Bruhl's line, "Be fair to your opponent, or this peace will be hated" was about the most concise, yet complete, summation of WWII's origin as I've heard.

[Augustus 3061]

During the "negotiation" and later signing of the armistice, all I kept thinking was, "You're gonna visit that railroad car again, Frenchy."

[Ghost of LL 15531]

2 hours ago, Augustus said:

Watched last night.  Beautiful, in its way, which was to be horrifying.

Bruhl's line, "Be fair to your opponent, or this peace will be hated" was about the most concise, yet complete, summation of WWII's origin as I've heard.

This reflects the popular view of Versailles.  But it's largely at variance with the facts.

The reparations imposed on Germany were far from crippling.  In fact, the war debt that Britain and France had to repay to the United States was significantly more onerous than Germany's reparations debt.  And while the United States pressured Britain and France to forgive a huge portion of Germany's reparations bill, the United States didn't forgive any of France and Britain's war debt.  The result is that Germany's economy recovered faster than any other country's in Europe.

There's this popular idea that the reparations debt caused hyperinflation.  But that's not true; hyperinflation in Germany was caused by the Great Depression and the German government's spending policies in trying to address the economic effects of the Depression.  It had nothing to do with Versailles.

The other provisions of Versailles were not terribly onerous or unusual.  The limits on Germany's military is no different than what we did with Japan after World War II, and nobody thinks that was unfair.  The loss of territory was less severe than the peace Germany imposed on Russia a year earlier.

World War II didn't come about because Versailles was unfair.  It came about because large portions of the German military thought the verdict of the battlefield was unfair.  And I think the movie does a good job of reflecting that.

The German High Command told the Kaiser on November 9 that the war could not be won and that the armistice had to be signed.  But then the military refused to meaningfully participate in the armistice negotiations.  Instead, they forced the civilian government to sign and take responsibility for the armistice (as accurately reflected in the movie).  And, at the same time, you had large portions of the German military (particularly in the officer corps, as reflected in the movie) that wanted to continue to fight.

Therein is the foundation of the Dochstosslegende--the legend that gripped Germany in the interwar period that the German military wasn't defeated on the battlefield; it was stabbed in the back by a cabal of socialists and Jews.  With that mindset, the origin of which I think the movie does an excellent job of capturing, German revanchism was guaranteed no matter what the terms at Versailles ended up being.

[tbone_ 14123]

^ stuff like this right here is an example of why surly is fantastic, assuming of course you didn’t make that shit up.

[huge 3793]

1 hour ago, tbone_ said:

^ stuff like this right here is an example of why surly is fantastic, assuming of course you didn’t make that shit up.

Look at his avatar, it has to be accurate

[Buzzrock 14920]

Whatever, nerds

[52-80 19159]

4 hours ago, tbone_ said:

^ stuff like this right here is an example of why surly is fantastic, assuming of course you didn’t make that shit up.

I found it onerous

[thrillhammer 683]

On 11/15/2022 at 4:22 AM, 52-80 said:

No comparison. This is a good non-theater movie. 1917 is a cinematic special. 

my opinion is the opposite.  this was way better than 1917.  

[kingkoopa6 8350]

Damn. Not Paul going out with a stab in the back. 
 

that dude was fightin fightin. Good solider. Did what he was told. 
 

dang. I’m sad 

[ztejas 43452]

Just watched. I'll have to rewatch 1917 I guess to compare the two. 

I thought it was fine. The narrative/arc seemed very muddled and all over the place. As did the tone from scene to scene. Perhaps that's the fault of the novel which I admittedly haven't read. I kind of doubt that, though. 

Ultimately it felt like a bunch of impressive scenes stitched together in the wrong order with bizarre transitions at times. I never felt sure what I was supossed to be feeling or focusing on. There were scenes that felt very powerful for different reasons but then it would transition into something else and completely lose all momentum.

The score also wasn't very good. But that's more of an asterisk as I didn't feel like it detracted much.

Also I knew a lot about how WW1 was fought coming in so there was much more "yeah - it really fucking sucked" than "holy shit I can't believe people actually went through this" for me. 

Definitely an important film for historical reasons. Probably a great 2 hr watch for anyone who wants to know what WW1 was like. I just didn't think it was a great "movie" movie. 

[RPM 26321]

You should watch the original silent and the talkie remake.